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Ancient Jewish practice of hakhel gets a 21st-century revival
SUKKOT
The ancient Jewish practice of hakhel, an every-seven-years gathering, gets a 21st-century revival
Jackie Hajdenberg
(JTA)—Every seven years, in ancient times, Jewish men, women, and children would gather at the Temple on the first day of Sukkot to hear the king of Jerusalem read aloud from the Torah.
In 2022, there’s no king and no Temple, and more than half of all Jews live far from Jerusalem—but the ritual is still inspiring Jews around the world to gather together. In fact, the tradition, known as hakhel, appears to be seeing a resurgence of popular interest.
In Northampton, Massachusetts, Abundance Farm hosted an outdoor festival with tree planting, music, pickles, and cider to mark the end of the seven-year cycle of the shmita or agricultural sabbatical year to which hakhel is tied.
At Mount Zion Temple, in St. Paul, Minnesota, community members learned and shared Torah verses that inspire them and move them to action.
Mitsui Collective, a Jewish community-building organization, hosted an online “in-gathering” in honor of hakhel. Other congregations and communities hosted events online and in person that include Torah study, social activities, and reflection on the next seven years of Jewish life.
In New York City, a hakhel event planned for outside of Chabad’s headquarters in Crown Heights crowded the streets, while Chabad of Midtown hosted a Sukkot event for young Jewish professionals in the spirit of the ancient practice. “The biggest commemoration of it all is actually just primarily bringing people together and celebrating as Jews,” says Rabbi Levi Shmotkin, director of Chabad Young Professionals. “Especially in our times now, it’s something that people are craving,” he adds. “To have that feeling of community, of commitment, of unity, of togetherness, of being part of something greater than themselves.”
Hakhel—the imperative “Assemble!” in Hebrew—is the penultimate commandment outlined in the Torah. “Gather the people— men, women, children, and the strangers in your communities—that they may hear and so learn to revere your God and to observe faithfully every word of this teaching,” Moses tells his followers. Historical records show that the gathering was practiced during the time of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. But after it was destroyed in 70 CE, sending the Jews scattering, hakhel collapsed as a practice, too.
The contemporary revival began in the late 19th century, when a Polish rabbi named Eliyahu David Rabinowitz-Teomim published an anonymous pamphlet with a proposal to observe an assembly “in renewal of hakhel.”
The founding of Israel in 1948 invigorated the practice of multiple laws specific to the land of the ancient Jews, including the commandment to leave fields fallow every seven years, and renewed attention to hakhel. In 1952, the conclusion of the first shmita year after Israel’s founding, parallel events were held in Jerusalem and New York City.
Still, hakhel has remained unknown to many American Jews, with the prominent exception of those affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox movement.
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Every 7 years fields are left fallow
